For six glorious years, the cast and crew of Parks and Recreation have made us laugh, cry, and treat ourselves to a glorious night of television magic each week. It’s thanks to them that we now know about things like Galentine’s Day (aka the most amazing holiday celebration of ladies-celebrating-ladies EVER), the Swanson Pyramid of Greatness, and the fact that skim milk is just water that’s lying about being milk. In other words, it’s just a really great show — and one that I’m going to sorely miss when Parks and Rec ends after its seventh and final season next year.
But don’t fret, my fellow Parks and Rec-ians (which is totally a word, by the way), because as that three-year time jump on the show’s Season 6 finale indicates, there’s still plenty of story to tell concerning our beloved Pawnee residents. We now know that Leslie and Ben have triplets and were off to attend some sort of high-level situation at the end of the episode — though the details of what exactly that was regarding remains pretty scarce. (Seriously, what was all that about?) But other than that, everyone else’s future was left pretty much up in the air. And one person in particular was completely missing from that last scene entirely — and that was the one and only Tom Haverford.
Seriously, why was Tom not featured, or at least shown in some capacity, during that time jump sequence? Granted, both Ron and Donna were missing from that final scene as well, but the fact that Parks and Rec executive producer Michael Schur came right out and admitted to Entertainment Weekly back in April that he specifically didn't want Tom shown in the jump forward makes me all the more intrigued.
"When we were discussing who should be in that scene, Tom was pretty quickly ruled out, I’ll say that. For various reasons, we thought we should not see Tom in that scene."
Of course, there are several possibilities that could easily account for Tom being MIA. Perhaps his restaurant was doing so well he decided to make it his full-time job, or maybe he simply had a cold and wasn’t up for coming in that day (though I doubt that’s the case). No, it's more than likely that there's a key detail missing in regards to Tom’s fate — something the writers are in no hurry to tell us about. But that won’t stop me from drawing a few conclusions of my own, especially in light of a few recent casting announcements.
The series announced back in August that Natalie Morales will reprise her role as Lucy, Tom’s bartending girlfriend from Season 2, who eventually dumped him after realizing he still had feelings for his ex-wife. We haven’t seen too much of her character since that time, which makes me wonder… what could possibly bring her back into the picture after all this time? My conclusion: I think Parks and Rec is going to give us one more incredible wedding to celebrate.
Yup, I’m calling it right now. I think Tom and Lucy are going to wind up getting married on the show. After many attempted (and failed) relationships, I’d say it’s about time our boy Tom receives a happy ending. Plus, I think we can all agree that there’s nothing quite like a Parks and Rec wedding. Andy has April, Leslie has Ben, Ron has Diane — now it’s Tom’s turn to find that special someone. And I think Lucy may just be the perfect fit.
I'm rooting for you, Tom! Because I love you and I like you.
